Winners and Losers – What You Need to Know About the Aug. 14 Primaries

Aaron Bandler

3 months ago

Screenshot from Twitter.

August 14 featured a slew of primaries involving candidates who have either issued Jew-hating statements or made statements critical of Israel, and most of them won.

Among the most notable of these candidates is Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), who has been criticized for his past associations with Louis Farrakhan and is currently facing allegations of abuse. He won the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) primary for Minnesota attorney general on August 14; Ellison will square off against former state Rep. Doug Wardlow (R) in November.

Rashida Tlaib, the Palestinian-American congressional candidate who has stated that she believes in withholding aid from Israel “if it has something to do with inequality and not access to people having justice,” won the Democratic primary on Michigan’s 13th District on August 14. She will not be facing a Republican opponent in the general election.

The Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) said in response to Tlaib, “Threatening to cut military assistance to Israel is inconsistent with the values of the Democratic Party and the American people.”

J Street also told Jewish Telegraphic Agency that they’re reaching out to Tlaib to clarify her recent comments stating, “This whole idea of a two-state solution, it doesn’t work.” JStreetPAC has endorsed Tlaib.

Similarly, Ilhan Omar, who once tweeted that “Israel is hypnotizing the world,” won the Democratic primary in Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District, another heavily Democratic district.

On the other hand, Paul Nehlen, who once stated that “Jews control the media” that Jews “are never to be trusted,” lost handily in the Republican primary in Wisconsin’s First Congressional District, receiving only 10 percent of the vote.